Aladin

My niece was was casted at the Genie in the play Aladdin for their school. There is a traveling company that go to your school and rent a space at Brea performing Arts. They had kids from K-6tth and had the rights to the original music so it turned out great. She originally auditioned for the part of Aladdin but she was such a ham they asked her to play the Genie. 

She did an incredible job and we had no idea she had this hidden talent of acting let alone being a hoot on stage. Cousins

She had lots of family support and I especially enjoyed being able to go since I wasn't planning on it...As you can see baby was due any day.

I was so lucky that I was invited to attend a photography workshop by MeRa Koh. She is an amazing photographer who is very talented with an amazing story. She has been on the Nate Berkus show multiple times and has written many books. Since I was just being a model for the ladies who attended the workshop the photos are from all different people and everyone turned out better than what envisioned.

I have never been able to justify spending the money for a few good shots of my newborn but I am so glad I finally did. The pictures remind me of carrying her in my tummy for 9 extremely hard months and I would do it again for her in a heartbeat. They remind me of  the innocent baby sent from our Heavenly Father to raise and love until she can return to him one day. They remind me to not take any day for granted and enjoy every moment possible with all of my children as they grow up so quickly. A big thank you Daneille and her cousin Amy for the opportunity to remember these important little things.

Her precious yawn...

Since she was only 7 days old and I was obviously still not up and running at my normal speed my mom accompanied me to help. It was so nice to have her there and she was planning on being there just for helping me, UNTIL Me-Ra wanted to get some photos of both of them. It was so darling and we even have a few shots of 3 generations.

Thanks Mom for coming to help after a week of helping with the 2 older kids.

I love that Me-Ra caught her darling swirl on her head. That hair only last a few weeks before it changes.

A grandmas hands love her new granddaughter. No faces, just the simpleness. Hopefully a shot like this will one day be so important and meaningful to.

1 week before baby... After a long long long 9 months of a hard pregnancy our sweet angel finally arrived (all because of a wonderful drug called PITOCIN) I had both of my previous children at least a week and a half early so we for sure thought she would follow the same pattern. Days and days kept passing and we continued to get closer to her due date.

When March 12th arrived and she was due on March 16th I decided I wanted to be induced. I was not going to be overdue and that was final. Our OB originally wanted to induce on the 14th but realizing Jared's birthday was March 15th why not have the joy of sharing your birthday with your dad.

March 15th... Woke up at 2:00 am. Nerves and being too anxious got the best of me. I decided since I was up I would get ready, do my make-up, hair and look my best since you normally don't after labor.... (I have a weird thing with sharing pictures of mom and baby after birth looking horrible and everyone thinking the same thing but no one has the heart to say you don't look great and the baby looks a little funny.

5:30 am..We arrived at the hospital, got checked in and started pitocin at 7:00am. Light contractions started, baby hadn't dropped yet.

9:30... Water still had not broken, not very much progress about a 3.5 cm. dilated. The doctor came and broke my water.

Shortly after... I started having very strong contractions, very sharp sharp pains and still not progressing. I never experienced contractions like these and finally when I hit a 4 I was grimacing for an epidural. It bummed me out since I like to try and go as far along as passable without the epidural but there was NO way I could continue. I could have sworn I was at a 10 and I knew what that felt like due to  reaching a 10 when #2 was born.

Epidural...The epidural was horrible. Typically my most pain comes from the dumb IV but not with the baby. The anesthesiologist was very kind and trying to be gentle and could not figure out why it was hurting but after about 10 minutes I finally broke down and started to have tears run down my face and shake as I was trying to hold still. Jared was amazing at comforting me. I am normally very calm, quite and collected as my pain threshold is very high but it was all I could do to have tears run.

I finally was able to receive the epidural with little pain and it kicked in. It was amazing but my right side of my body would not completely numb. It was tingly and I had complete movement. The pain was remarkably better and I could deal with contractions I was feeling on the right....Until about 30 minutes later. The contractions were so unbearable again and I had tears rolling down again. Luckily for Jared (and everyone else involved) I was still quite and just trying to manage my pain. The anesthesiologist came back and added more medication and finally the epidural worked on all of me!

1:19...   7 hours later, Baby was born!

Baby #3 

Taytum 

March 15th 2012

6lbs. 4 oz. 

 Remember my weird quirk, Babies never look great when first born. I rest my case with this picture. Yet we love her to pieces!

 Remember my funny quirk about moms never looking very good after giving birth, I rest my case. I hadn't even given birth and had my make-up on and still don't look great.

Note...all these pictures are from our cell phone.

 Chubby cheeks and Asian eyes like #1. 

(People couldn't believe #1 was our daughter for the first 2 years of her life as she had such squinty eyes and we called her our Asian baby. Some even referred to her as a look a like to John and Kate plus 8 kids???)

 I continually have questions about her hair, No I don't take any vitamins to have her grow hair in the womb, yes all of my children were blessed with heads of hair, yes #1 had black hair too and just as much, and #2 was blond.

 The kids were so excited to come and visit everyday. They even got sparkling cider in champagne glasses to make a toast for their new sister.

Jared did a great job with getting me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. He is so amazing and from day 1 has always gotten me extraordinary flowers often. I love him for thinking of flowers on the non traditional days.  

Since I had know I would be having a baby close to Jared's birthday I had felt bad since he would probably be forgotten. I wanted to plan something in advanced and when he mentioned he loved this chair back in January I jumped on the band wagon. I went with my dad to pick it up and stored this large piece in a friends garage for 2 1/2 months. (Thank you Bob and Sharon) 

 We had a few visitors on our first day home. I love the help from an older sibling #1. Especially because #2 loves her a ton but isn't old enough to watch her all alone.

 I love the first few weeks when they sleep and smile. I wonder all the thoughts that are going through their little minds. (Remembering being with their heavenly father before coming to our family???)

          She is so sweet and has been very good at trying to adjust to my schedule. She sleeps about 4 hour stretches at night. She is so angelic looking the older she gets and we love this picture since her pure innocence is shown. She looks like a baby doll with her beautiful olive skin.

More of the amazing photos to be continued...